After the back-to-back cancellations of DaBaby‘s scheduled performances at Lollapalooza and New York’s Governors Ball, the rapper took to Instagram Monday to share a second apology for his controversial remarks about people with HIV/AIDS, which he made at a Miami show last week.
“Social media moves so fast the people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate and learn from your mistakes,” the statement reads. “As a man who has had to make his own way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly working against me — Knowing that what I needed was education on these topics and guidance — has been challenging.”
The post, which is closed to comments, adds that DaBaby is grateful to those who kindly reached out to him “privately to offer wisdom, education, and resources.”
“That’s what I need, and it was received,” he continues. “I want to apologize to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for my misinformed comments about HIV/Aids, and I know education on this is important. Love to all. God bless. DaBaby.”
DaBaby initially tweeted an apology for the “insensitive” comments he made during his Rolling Loud performance, during which he said onstage, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two or three weeks, put your cellphone light in the air.”
Despite his second apology, DaBaby has also been replacedby Roddy Ricch on the Day N Vegas festival lineup, which takes place this November.
Sammy Hagar has spoke previously about how he and Eddie Van Halen made peace with each other prior to Eddie’s death in October 2020. But now, in a new interview, Hagar says his former Van Halen band mate told him that he wanted the two to “make some noise” together.
Speaking to The Washington Post a few days ago, Hagar said that when he reconnected with Eddie “four or five months before he died,” the late guitar legend “had elevated his whole thing.”
Hagar explains, “He had come to peace with everything. He knew he was sick. And it was so great to contact the guy when he was in that state of mind…And man, I’m so glad that that happened at that time, because if it wouldn’t have, if we had never made peace and he would have passed the way he did, I would feel terrible.”
Hagar goes on to say that in that conversation, Eddie told him that he’d been fighting cancer for 15 years and that he had to get “this big thing on my neck and my throat…all straightened out.” Then, Hagar says Eddie told him, “Next year, you and I have gotta make some noise. We made some great music together, and I wanna do it again.’ I was just, like, ‘Yes.'”
Hagar adds, “Hearing those things really made me able to handle his death. ‘Cause it’s still tough as hell. I miss the guy.”
Hagar joined Van Halen in 1985, replacing original frontman David Lee Roth, and recorded four number-one albums with the group. The band’s “Van Hagar” lineup — Hagar, Eddie, bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Alex Van Halen — last toured together in 2004.
The country superstar has joined the lineup for the upcoming ACM Party for a Cause event. Keith is one of the many acts who will take the stage at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville on August 24 in benefit of ACM Lifting Lives.
“I can’t wait to play live and I’ll see you there,” Keith shares in a video announcing his performance, adding in the caption, “I am soooo looking forward to it!”
Sam Hunt, Old Dominion, Mickey Guyton, Lee Brice, Brett Eldredge, Trisha Yearwood and Tenille Townes are also slated to appear at the event.
Party for a Cause precedes the 14th annual ACM Honors that will be hosted on August 25 at the Ryman Auditorium. Honorees include Luke Combs, Dan + Shay, Lady A, Rascal Flatts, Loretta Lynn and more.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Fire conditions in the West are worsening this week, increasing the possibility of more blazes.
Currently, 90 large wildfires are burning in 12 states in the West — at least 35 of which ignited over the weekend due to lightning strikes.
Another heat wave is blanketing the region as moisture from the monsoons in the Southwest move away, leaving behind a dry atmosphere and tinderbox conditions. Heat advisories and excessive heat watches have been issued from Oregon to Arizona, with temperatures expected to surpass 100 degrees again.
The McFarland Fire in Wildwood, California, has prompted evacuations in the area after it grew to more than 2,100 acres and remains just 5% contained.
The Dixie Fire near the Feather River Canyon in Northern California, the largest in the state so far this year, is now at 248,000 acres. Firefighters were able to halt the blaze’s progression, which is now 33% contained, but some evacuation orders remain in place.
Firefighters in Oregon have made progress against the Bootleg Fire, the largest in the country, with 84% containment after it grew to nearly 414,000 acres, the third-largest wildfire in state history.
However, red flag warnings have been issued in Southern Oregon over the possibility that more fires will spark due to dry lightning. Hot, breezy conditions are expected to persist this week.
Above-normal significant fire potential is expected to continue in the Northwest, northern Rockies and northern portions of the Great Basin, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center’s National Fire Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for August through November.
Despite monsoon conditions in the Southwest last week, “exceptional drought” conditions are persisting across Northern California and the Northwest, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
ABC News’ Melissa Griffin and Max Golembo contributed to this report.
Mike Smith/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Andy Grammer has debuted a new summer camp anthem with the help of fans and his four-year-old daughter, Louisiana.
The song, called “C.A.M.P.,” is the result of a campaign in partnership with Quaker Chewy that asked fans to submit their own camp-themed lyrics. For every lyric submitted, Quaker Chewy donated a dollar to the American Camp Association.
Andy compiled the best lyrics into a song, which he performed at a campsite with little Louie by his side.
The chorus goes, “Wanna see my friends/ I wanna feel A-OK/ I wanna say ‘Mmmm’ with a piece of marshmallow in my face/ I wanna sing too loud/ I wanna stay up late/ Well camp is where my heart it comes to play.”
Bob Dylan will issue a special seven-inch vinyl single on August 20, featuring two previously unreleased versions of his 1983 song “Blind Willie McTell.”
Both versions of the song, which Dylan recorded during the sessions for his 1983 album, Infidels, feature Dire Straits‘ Mark Knopfler and ex-Rolling Stones member Mick Taylor on guitars, and legendary reggae session musicians Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on drums and bass, respectively.
The single’s A-side will feature the first take of the track, which will be available exclusively on the single and can be pre-ordered at ThirdManStore.com. The B-side will feature the fifth take of the tune, which also will be included on the recently announced Dylan archival collection Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16 (1980-1985) that’s due out September 17.
As previously reported, Springtime in New York is a five-CD, 57-track set that focuses on the sessions for three of the lauded singer/songwriter’s early-1980s albums — 1981’s Shot of Love, Infidels and 1985’s Empire Burlesque.
“Blind Willie McTell” was an outtake from Infidels. The only studio version of the song that’s been released so far is a take featuring just Dylan on piano and Knopfler on guitar that appeared on 1991’s The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 compilation.
Springtime in New York can be pre-ordered now. For full details about the release, visit BobDylan.com.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of her Grammy-nominated film, Black Is King,Beyoncé shared the official music video for her songs “Mood 4 Eva” and “OTHERSIDE.”
Black Is King premiered July 31, 2020, on Disney+, and was the visual soundtrack album to the 2019 film The Lion King: The Gift. It features cameos from her husband, Jay-Z, their daughter, Blue Ivy, Naomi Campbell, Kelly Rowland, Bey’s mother, Tina Lawson, and more.
The theme is animal print in the “Mood 4 Eva” visual. Beyoncé can be seen in a sparkling cheetah-print hat and gown with a slit up to her right thigh. There are also scenes of Bey sitting on the hood of a cheetah-print vehicle dressed in a cheetah-print jumpsuit and kids in zebra-print suits. The over-seven-minute video ends with Bey fabulously wearing a robe with dollar bills printed all over it and sipping champagne while sitting next to her unbothered husband.
Bey and Jay-Z’s twins, Rumi and Sir, appear in the “OTHERSIDE” visual to symbolically explain Simba’s journey back to the Pride Lands in The Lion King story.
The “Mood 4 Eva” and “OTHERSIDE” videos are available on Beyoncé’s YouTube channel.
On another note, Beyoncé has received one of the highest honors fromRolling Stone, which ranked her 2016 “Formation” visual #1 on its “100 Greatest Music Videos” list.
In the past year-plus, William Shatner has recorded a couple of albums, released a movie, served as host on a couple of new shows — including History’s The UneXplained and RT America’s I Don’t Understand — and has taken up a new hobby: slaying trolls.
The iconic Star Trek star admits to ABC Audio that, of course, he doesn’t have to spend time answering back snarkers online, but he genuinely gets a kick out of it.
There are countless examples, but his most recent comeback was reserved for Love It or List It co-host David Visentin, who posted to him, “Red rover red rover this tweet about life as theater calls @WilliamShatner over.”
To this, Shatner responded, “David, dear boy — a couple rules of Twitter: One doesn’t post a tweet of questions, then answer their own tweet and tag me in it so I can point out how pitifully sad they are,” complete with a shrugging emoji.
Visentin’s tweet was rather benign, but Shatner often gets sharper ones — and answers in kind. He recently took a Twitter user to task for calling Shatner’s singing Elton John‘s “Rocket Man” the “worst footage I had on my hard drive.”
To him, Shatner retorted, “I looked on my timeline for the dumbest person and found him! A blue checked troll who tagged me in silly tweet and then liked his own tweet! So I blocked him!”
Shatner tells ABC Audio with a giggle, “I find it amusing.”
He adds, “And of course, you know, the stupid people…who try to do stupid things behind an anonymous shield, you have to ignore. But if you take responsibility for your thought, and argue your thought, it could be great fun!”
(WASHINGTON) — With 3.6 million Americans at risk of being evicted as soon as Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated her call to the Biden administration to immediately renew the now-lapsed eviction moratorium on Monday after House Democrats over the weekend failed to pass legislation via unanimous consent to extend it to Oct. 18.
“As they have called upon the American people to mask up, to be vaccinated and to take other public health precautions, it is critical, in recognition of this urgency, that they extend the eviction moratorium,” Pelosi said of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a new letter to Democratic colleagues Monday morning. “Putting people on the streets contributes to the spread of the virus.”
It comes after freshman Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who highlights how she was once homeless herself, spent her third night sleeping on the Capitol steps to protest the end of the moratorium even as most House lawmakers had already headed home for the August recess.
As Pelosi says she now awaits a new response from the administration, the White House said last week that it can’t unilaterally extend the moratorium because of a Supreme Court ruling in late June when Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the 5-4 majority, said he would block additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
But Democratic leaders have put the responsibility to extend the measure — which they’ve called a “moral imperative” — back on President Joe Biden and the CDC, which first implemented the moratorium last September, after the Biden administration on Thursday, one day before the House adjourned for August recess, called on Congress to pass legislation.
Despite the 11th-hour scramble by lawmakers, the moratorium expired on Saturday.
With the Senate back in session to focus on unprecedented infrastructure legislation, the chances senators would pivot to a moratorium extension are slim.
“Action is needed, and it must come from the Administration,” Pelosi said in a joint statement with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark, D-Mass, on Sunday evening. “As the CDC doubles down on mask-wearing and vaccination efforts, science and reason demand that they must also extend the moratorium in light of the delta variant.”
The Democratic leaders also called on the Treasury Department to indicate how state and local governments can more efficiently deliver the billions in rental assistance Congress has authorized since last December. Of the $47 billion available, only $3 billion has been sent out so far.
Pelosi on Monday also announced House Democrats will have a presentation Tuesday from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, whose department transferred the funds earlier this year, which were intended to help renters and landlords with payments during the moratorium catch up — but dispersing those out has been a slow process.
While the House adjourned for its August recess, Pelosi has teased that she could call members back to bring legislation. However, without a desire in the Senate to pass an extension, she’s putting the onus back on Biden.
The president, who was leaving Camp David for the White House Monday, has not yet directly responded to Pelosi’s latest letters, but he has also called for the acceleration of congressionally-approved rental assistance funds.
“There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement Friday.
Progressive lawmakers including Bush, who has been homeless, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have called on their colleagues to do more.
“We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “Now, there is something to be said for the fact that this Court order came down on the White House, a month ago, and the White House waited until the day before the House adjourned to release a statement asking on Congress to extend the moratorium.”
She and other progressive Democrats, who also penned a letter to urge the Biden administration to take action, joined Bush and activists outside the Capitol over the weekend to draw awareness to what they call a public health emergency.
“Extending the eviction moratorium is a matter of life and death for the communities we represent,” they said in the letter.
Bush, who was still on the Capitol steps Monday, told ABC News over the weekend that she was “frustrated” and “disgusted” that the moratorium was not extended and didn’t have plans to leave.
According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau survey from late June and early July, about 7.4 million adult tenants reported they were behind on rent.
Game of Thronesalums Kit Harington and Rose Leslie are notoriously private about their lives, but in a recent interview, the actors provided a rare glimpse of how their lives have changed since becoming first-time parents.
When revealing what was the most surprising thing he’s learned about being a dad, Harington, 34, told Access Hollywood, “Everyone goes, ‘Look, it’s big what you’re about to go through.’ You have no way of knowing that until it happens.”
“What surprises you is: You go, ‘Oh, this goes on forever.’ Like, you don’t get a break from it,” he continued.
Harington said he was surprised by how his marriage improved in the months since. “Every day, I wake up and I look after this little human and now we’re part of a unit together,” he said. “I think the thing that surprises me most about fatherhood is… you are now a unit, the three of you. And that’s a whole new dynamic you need to find.”
While not revealing too much about his newborn, the upcoming Eternals star gushed, “I pretty much find every day as he grows and changes, how does that change you. It’s a beautiful thing, it really is!”
Meanwhile, Harrington appears to be in a sharing mood; he also told XM’s The Jess Cagle Show about going to rehab for stress and alcohol after his HBO hit ended.
I went through some mental health difficulties after Thrones‘ — and during the end of Thrones, to be honest — and I think it was directly to do with the nature of the show and what I’ve been doing for years,” the 34-year-old actor told the chat show host.
“I think I took a sort of break after Thrones where I said, ‘I don’t want to work for a year. I want to really kind of concentrate on myself. I’m really happy I did that.”
